Manager Ozzie Guillen didn’t specify if Sale would become the White Sox closer or be used in a setup role. For Williams, late-inning relief is all about getting important outs. So, if Matt Thornton is chosen as the closer but is needed in the eighth, then the roles will have to be adjusted.

“It’s a great scenario if Matt Thornton is the guy because of what he has been doing for the White Sox,” Guillen said. “Sale has great stuff to be the closer. A couple of guys out there have closed before. Right now, it’s too early for me to say whether this guy is going to be the closer or not.”

“Sometimes that means in seventh inning if Moreau and Mauer are coming up, maybe the guy you have tabbed as your ‘closer’ is better for that situation versus the ninth, when you have the No. 9-1-2 or 8-9-1 (hitters) coming up,” Williams explained. “Right now, we have a situation where people have earned right to pitch the last inning or last couple of innings. Fortunately we have some candidates.”

Peavy wants to be looked at as a starting pitcher building for the regular season and not a talented hurler answering questions as he comes back from a serious and rare injury. That sentiment has been texted throughout the offseason by Peavy to general manager Ken Williams, with Peavy sharing nothing but a positive outlook on his comeback.

“He really has been kind of annoying and he’s gung-ho,” said Williams with a laugh. “Put it this way, if you are sending the Marines into battle, this is the guy you want giving the speech to get you riled up.

“It’s our job to make sure that competitive nature doesn’t get the best of him, get him to the point where he’s doing something more premature than he should. We will watch him closely and be very cautious dealing with him as I explained to him today.

“Whenever he gets out there, we want him at 100 percent,” Williams said. “We don’t want him to start at 80 percent and then stay at 80 percent because he hasn’t given himself that extra three weeks or month.”

The 22-year-old rookie had been in discussions as a possible temporary replacement for Jake Peavy in the fifth starter’s spot, assuming Peavy’s road to full recovery from season-ending surgery to repair a torn latissimus dorsi muscle in his right shoulder doesn’t lead him to Opening Day. But during organization meetings involving the White Sox front office and coaching staff held Thursday morning, it was decided the White Sox were best armed with Sale as a full-time reliever on the heels of his stellar 1.93 ERA posted out of the bullpen in 2010.

That decision won’t alter the White Sox decision to use Sale as a starter in Cactus League action, a plan Williams believes will be best-served for the southpaw’s overall development.

“This is very important because I had to explain this to my coaching staff as well,” Williams said. “The reason I had Chris Sale prepare as a starter is because that’s what he has done his whole life.

“So if you now tell him to prepare differently, might you not see the guy you last saw in September? We want him to prepare as he did so we can expect the same guy to show up. That means using all of his pitches and building him up as a starter.

“He has shown he can transfer that to a relief role,” Williams said. “Had we said he’s going to be a reliever from Day 1, might he prepare as a reliever and not build his arm up and legs up? We want him to be the best guy we just saw.”